Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) Executive Council member, Mustafa Karasu, told Yeni Özgur Politika that the Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan has established the PKK and carried out a great struggle to successfully overthrow the plans of the Turkish state to destroy Kurds.

Karasu pointed out that precisely because of this, the Turkish state has always shown great hostility towards Öcalan.

The Kurdish People’s Leader, said Karasu, is being subjected to a level of isolation never seen in the world.

Karasu underlined that “the Kurdish People's Leader is not any Kurdish leader, it is not any political leader. Leader Apo is not just a political leader who speaks about Kurdistan and Kurdish freedom.

The PKK is not such a movement. Leader Apo changed the mentality, thought and feelings of Kurds; he changed their life, family structure, neighborhood relations. He has created a society that fights with these new concepts in mind.

He has changed the whole life to be able to fight for freedom and democracy. He struggled against all the backwardness and raised the Kurdish people to the feet”.

“Abdullah Öcalan is not any leader”

Recalling how the PKK and Öcalan were accused of critizicing Kurds by sections of Kurdish society, Karasu added: “Leader Apo and the PKK criticized the backwardness of Kurds. He did not accept the backwardness of the Kurds, nor did he accept the backwardness of the Kurdish political movements. Leader Apo said that with the current Kurdish reality, nothing could have changed. Indeed Öcalan has changed the society tremendously with this criticism policy and this radical revolutionary mentality.”

For this reason, said Karasu, there is enormous hostility towards Öcalan by the genocidal colonialists.

“Leader Apo referred Kurds to the fight for freedom and the struggle for democracy. The reality of free Kurd emerged. A free Kurd reality that had its centre in Amed. Leader Apo has been living under an incredible isolation because of his policies and achievements. They don’t want a word to come out [of Imrali]. They fear a single word would influence the society. And in order to prevent his words to reach out, they increased isolation and pressure”.

Reiterating that “Öcalan is not a political leader, he is not the president of any party. He is a people’s leader. A leader who heads a revolution, a leader who drifts society with feelings and sincerity. It is a leadership that establishes a bond with society, even while in prison.”

And this is what provokes such hostility against him. Öcalan has overturned “the genocidal plans of the Turkish state to eradicate Kurds and their achievements”, said Karasu.

“Kurds changed thanks to Öcalan”

“The mentality, politics and struggle of the Leader had an impact on Kurds everywhere. And Kurds had an impact on the world. A new Kurdish reality was revealed. Socially, the Kurds have become a more progressive, more democratic, more revolutionary, more dynamic people than other social segments in the Middle East. Kurds now have an advanced mindset and character that is contemporary, democratic, and in line with the spirit of the times”.

Talking about the isolation regime imposed on Öcalan, Mustafa Karasu said that there is no such example in the world. “Öcalan has been in isolation for 20 years. They confined him to an island. We have no news of his health state and his situation since July 2011. This was the last time his lawyers met him. His family is not allowed to visit him either”.

Karasu underlined that every attack on Kurds corresponds to an attack on Öcalan and an even worse pressure on him. “For twenty years there has been a psychological war carried out against Önder Apo”, he added.